Redistricting battle returns to court

Wednesday

May 29, 2013 at 2:01 PM

SAN ANTONIO - The two-year redistricting battle might not be over when the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature ends its special session.

Attorneys for both sides were back in federal court this week - the first time this year - and though the hearing was not as contentious as previous ones, the three-judge panel made it clear the redistricting fight may not be settled until late summer at the earliest.

"Does anybody have any suggestions as to what we should be doing as we prepare for the unknown?" Judge Xavier Rodriguez asked

"We could see delays again for the 2014 election," Rodriguez said in reference to last year's fiasco when the Democratic and Republican primaries were twice delayed and finally held on May 29, 2012, nearly three months after initially scheduled.

On Monday, the last day of the 140-day regular session of the Legislature, Gov. Rick Perry called the lawmakers back for a special session on redistricting.

Perry asked the lawmakers to adopt for the rest of this decade the congressional and legislative maps used in the last year's election.

These are the maps the same San Antonio court drew while both sides in the fight were battling it out in the Alamo City and in another federal court in Washington.

Though Republican leaders in the Legislature, including Sens. Kel Seliger of Amarillo and Robert Duncan of Lubbock, said the issue shouldn't take the maximum of 30 days a special session can last, the court and attorneys for the plaintiffs hinted the battle would likely continue long after the special session ends on or before June 26.

"There is no viable plan to conduct elections yet in Texas," said San Antonio attorney Jose Garza, who described the interim maps as "problematic."

"The role of this court is to make sure elections in Texas proceed in an orderly fashion," said Garza, who represents the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, one of the leading plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Like other attorneys for the plaintiffs, Garza has long argued the maps the Legislature approved in the 2011 session did not take into account the explosive growth of the non-white population that helped Texas gain four congressional districts.

However, David Mattax, the lead attorney for the state, countered that with the court's help, if necessary, the state could hold its 2014 election on time.

The court could wait for the Legislature to address the issue, Mattax said, as he argued that the matter is not as complicated as Garza and attorneys for other plaintiffs make it look.

"Or you could remedy the maps now," Mattax said.

Seliger - a central figure in the redistricting battle because he chaired the Senate Redistricting Committee in the 2011 session and was recently reappointed to a similar panel - said though he is optimistic the Legislature will address the issue fairly, what happens outside the State Capitol is out of lawmakers' control.

"I am also not naïve that what happens in court, it could impact the case," said Seliger.

The 15-member Senate Select Committee on Redistricting that Seliger chairs, which includes Duncan, holds the first - and, for now, the only - public hearing Thursday morning.

For its part, the House panel, of which Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, is a member, meets Friday and Saturday.

However, even before both panels meet, San Antonio Democratic Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer made it clear the issue is not as simple as Perry and legislative leaders described Monday when the special session on redistricting was called.

"The sales job that it is being done in Austin is to have the state attorney general saying, 'Oh, we just adopt these temporary maps and it's over, we close the book on redistricting and we have permanent maps for the rest of the decade,' " Martinez Fischer said after the hearing. "I think that argument went like a lead balloon in this courtroom today. That doesn't end things; it only begins things."

Martinez Fischer is another central figure in the redistricting fight because he chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.